bangers n mash wrote:Music in its purest form resides within the depths of an artist in a form that is formless
with sounds that are soundless.
It is, in a way, a movement, a dance, a point, within the soul.
But when this movement is translated
and then played on instruments
some or a lot of its purity is lost
some or a lot of its true content and meaning is lost.
John Coltrane for example was continually trying to express his inner most being through his playing
... in albums such as Love Supreme and Live at the Village Vanguard.
His search was endless because it is infact impossible to translate this internal purity into external format.
The same with the paintings of Van Gogh also.
Thus music that we hear, and the sounds involved are infact an approximation of what is within the artist
and has degraded and lost some meaning in its translation.
There is some truth in that but most people who write,dont sit down and say "Ok i'm gonna write this or that song" alot of it is subconcious and just gut feeling at the time of the creation other times it can be a written idea helping the mind to expand upon it,in which case yes it can be translated from an idea and partly distort the real emotion,an idea can be emotive in raw form,but can also have massive impact given by the soundchoice also,would Oxygene sound as romantic without the Sweeping Eminent phased strings!!!Probably not
but from my experience of songwriting (and pretty much other songwriters i Know),the artist for a few moments felt moved or inspired to create something not able to grasp or put into context at the time,when you play something and feel submerged in it enough to move you,there is no way to ever grab that moment again,no matter how much you try to replicate it,as a listener you can be touched upon by the emotion of the song,but only the composer at the time of its creation can fully feel the emotion behind the song even though they probably dont actually realise it at the time.
I do think that sometimes a great part of something is lost along the way in trying to transcribe that Idea,but alot of the time that could be just down to sheer boredom of repetitive listening to it again and again,hence why so many composers go on to write more and more stuff ,never fully happy with what they have captured.
Songs can have powerful messages and people are affected emotionally in many ways,but unless your a songwriter yourself,you can never feel the full pleasure of creating something out of nothing.when you've created something that makes you sit back and ask,"where did that idea come from" thats when its unique,only a magical moment of subconciousness
Most songwriters will say that the best songs they create are the ones that were not born out of forcible conditions,but more something that took place easily and innocently and fell into shape felt only at the time of creation.once you start to concentrate on it,it becomes lost in translation.
